being an use of Reproofe are handled Fol. 171 CAP. VIII Wherein the third and last branch of the Use of Reproofe is handled Fol. 215 CAP. IX Wherein the Doctrine is applyed to the enemies of the Church by way of Exhortation Fol. 257 June 23. 1640. IMPRIMATUR THO WYKES THE SAINTS Interest in GOD. PSAL. 68.20 He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues of death CAP. I. Wherein the Coherence together with the sense and meaning of the words are cleared and Doctrines raised WE are met in the presence of this God of ours as the Text speaketh to our hearts very gratiously who is the God of saluation to pay the yearely tribute of praise and thanksgiving which a mercy so transcendently glorious as that Deliverance was which this day calls to remembrance hath imposed upon us with the rest of our Brethren of this Nation That which our Prophet spake of the great workes of God in generall Psal 111.4 though some restraine the words to the deliverance from Aegypt may in speciall manner be applyed to that great Deliverance wrought for this Land which wee now celebrate Some of our English translations reade the words thus The marcifull and gracious Lord hath So done his marvellous workes that they ought to be had in remembrance Our late Translation without any variation of the sense thus He hath made his marvellous workes to beremembred that is upon such workes of his by which hee intends in any more especiall manner to magnifie himselfe on earth he sets as it were such faire and large Characters of his glorious Greatness Power Wisdom and Mercy that all the world cannot but see and know the superscription whose it is He hath so done his marvollous workes that is in such a manner hath put so much as it were of himselfe into them that they ought to bee had or must needs or cannot but bee had in remembrance which is the same with the other Translation he hath made his marvellous works to be remembred that is he hath as it were compelled the world against the naturall inclination and disposition of it which stands to neglect to passe by to forget any thing that God doth to preserve the remembrance of them Men cannot but doe what they doe therein That great Deliverance which that great God of ours wrought for this Nation now 29. years since is of this sort or kinde of his workes among many excellent and goodly workes of his which shine like the Stars in the Firmament it is one of the first magnitude it doth not require it rather comes with power and authority upon us and commands this solemne remembrance of it selfe by this Nation As our Saviour answered the Jewes speaking against the people who so much magnified him If these should hold their peace Luk. 19.4 the Stones would cry So if wee the people of this Land the Men and Women to whom the duty of praising God for such a mercy doth belong if wee I say should have that Miracle or rather indeed Monster of sin found amōgst us not to exalt the name of God under such a provocation we might have cause to expect that God would provoke us and confound us by them that are neither Men nor Women The very beasts of the field or trees or stones of the earth would rise up and take this glory from us They would cry out if we should hold our peace that great is that God that could and would deliver after such a manner David tooke notice by way of thankfulnesse of that speciall love God bare to Sion above all other places in that Land in that he would have his praises heard there Psal 87.2 The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Iacob So have wee just cause to conceive and judge by that great mercy of his to this Land that the same Lord loveth more to be praised by us then any other Nation under heaven that the English Incense is in heaven as the Gold of Ophir sometimes was upon earth preferred before that of other Lands it makes the sweetest perfume and savour in the Nostrils of God And therefore because he would have it plentifully offered and sent up unto him he hath unbared his holy arme to doe those great things for us which our soules know right well When he made this compact with David I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal 50.15 it was a signe that he had a minde to Davids praises more then other mens so having delivered this our Nation once and again and the third time also with so high a hand What other construction can all the world make of such his dealings with us but that he delights to have his praises sung and his name magnified by the English Nation more then all Lands besides Since therefore wee have so great a testimony of the Lords good pleasule in this kinde that he esteemes our praises lovely and desires to heare our voice let us addresse our selves to this great and honourable service let us fill the golden Vialls of our hearts with these sweet odors and make a perfume before the Lord. To furnish both you and my selfe herewith I have made choice of this rich Veine in one of the Psalmes of David as you have heard wherein wee shall finde the praise and glory of God bearing very strongly The Psalme it selfe is in genere laudativo that is of that kinde of Psalme which is in purpose framed for the exaltation of the name and praise of God For the scope of the words no more but this The scope The Prophet a few verses before having set forth severall deliverances and victories which God had given him and his people Israel his heart being full with a Commemoration and mention of so many mercies of the love of the Lord and admiration of his goodnesse in these two verses this and the former not able to hold any longer hee easeth himselfe and breakes forth into the praises of his God in this manner Blessed be the God that daily ladeth us with his benefits c. For the meaning of the words and meaning of the words a little will suffice because here is nothing scarce either word or phrase but is every mans language He that is our God that is that God with whom we are in Covenant whom wee serve and worship That God whether true or false which any Nation or People or any private person chuseth for a god and bestowes that feare and love other points of worship which belongs to God indeed is usually termed and well may be their or his God because such a People or such a person may seem to have a right and interest in the power of that God whatsoever he is for helpe and succour in times of need Out of some such principle as this he spake that said Iure venit cultos ad sibi
such a creature as man is or compell him by a strong hand of power without gaining in his will and affection thereunto to receive and own him for his God Nay secondly the truth is though God be of an omnipotent and irresistible power yet can he not compell any creature whatsoever indued with understanding and will to receive and owne him against their will because it is by an act of the Will that he is and must be received and so long as there remaineth an unwillingnesse in a man to receive or owne him for his God impossible it is that he should be received or owned by him So that now God must finde out a sutable and fitting meanes to worke the heart or will of his creature to a desire or willingnesse of receiving him Thirdly and lastly there was no other way or meanes conceivable at least none so con-naturall proper and sweet for such a purpose but only to propound and offer himselfe in a free and gracious Covenant unto it And so in pleading his owne infinite worth and excellency incomparably above the emptinesse and vanity of other things to fall in with the effectuall working of his Spirit and hereby to awaken quicken raise and strengthen the heart and soule of his creature to a willingnesse of embracing and accepting his offer that is himselfe Thus you see another Ground or Reason of the point The gracious Covenant of God The fourth and last Ground we shall now insist upon is the performance of the condition required in this Covenant by the Church and People of God namely Their faith in God or dependance upon him which is nothing else but their acceptance of him according to his offer for their God This is another thing that makes him theirs in that full and compleate manner that he is He requires upon the matter nothing else of men to make himselfe theirs or to give them the entire propriety we speake of in himselfe but barely that without which it is simply absolutely impossible that he should be theirs God cannot be the God of any man but his that is willing to take him and have him for his God Dagon could not possibly have been the God of the Philistims nor Chemosh the God of the Ammonites c. except they had been willing to acknowledge and have them for their gods All violence and compulsion in the world exercised upon them could not have made these Idols or false gods theirs had they not been willing and consented to have acknowledged and owned them in that relation Now then this willingnesse in men to take owne and acknowledge the true God for their God without which it is simply impossible as hath been said that God should be theirs is all that is required to make him theirs or to give them this speciall and peculiar propriety in him To believe in Christ or rather in God through Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 Iohn 12.44 is nothing else being interpreted but by the meanes or encouragement of the Lord Christ given unto them really and unfainedly to take and acknowledge the great God of heaven and earth for our God and to addresse our selves unto him accordingly as well inwardly with Love Feare Reverence Dependance c. as outwardly in all manner of conversatiō sutable hereunto And all this in the roote and first spring of it in the soule is nothing else but a willingnesse of minde to take and owne him for our God or to trust him and make our dependance upon him This disposition being truly begotten and effectually raised in the soul containes all those other things mentioned in the loines of it Begotten and raised it is by the meanes of Jesus Christ and the word of salvation through him preached unto us which word the Holy Ghost taking as it were in his hand and managing it upon the soule overcommeth the evill of the heart with the goodnesse thereof and smiting the crooked spirit of unbeliefe which is the grand indisposition of the soule to accept of God for our God with the glorious brightnesse and power of the truth of it createth a right spirit of Faith in the stead which is nothing else in the first breaking of it in the soul but an aptnesse and willingnesse to believe that is to accept and entertaine the true God for our God For before there can be a distinct and compleat act of Faith or of accepting God for our God put forth in the soule there must be in the order of Nature an inclination or willingness to such an act going before Otherwise God should forsake his usuall method of proceeding à minus perfectis ad perfectiora from lesse perfection to greater Now as the first and weakest act of Faith or accepting God for our God being a reall performance of the condition required in the Covenant whilest it is yet secret in the hidden man of the heart gives a right and propriety in God according to the tenour thereof so doth the second act or outward testifying to the world a mans faith or dependance upon God draw out the particular and speciall benefits and advantages of this their interest in God This sets God on work to expresse himself freely unto them he cares not now if all the world know that he is theirs This faith of theirs in him openly manifested makes them fit and meet to be beloved I meane openly in the sight of heaven and earth and hell True God loves his Church and People as was said before they believe or else they could never come to believe Thine they were saith Christ and thou hast given them unto me Joh. 17.6 But till they come to believe in him other expressions of affection to them are but ordinary as to other men Though they bee his in some sense yet he will not owne them openly till they be worthy to be reputed his that is make their dependance upon him The first differencing expression of himselfe to be theirs and they his is the giving of faith unto them and when this is given and begins to worke and be active in them he cares not then what or how great blessings he gives them afterward The stumbling block is now removed out of the worlds way all the world cannot but confesse it just and equall that God should bee theirs that trust in him He was but a Heathen man that said it is right and equall that men should come to those gods for help whom they serve And so the Scripture still gives the reason of those speciall and extraordinary favours vouchsafed by God unto his Church to be their faith or dependance upon him Esay 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because hee trusteth in thee And Chap. 57.13 The winde shall carry them all away vanity shall take them but he that putteth his trust in me shall possesse the Land and shall inherite my holy Mountaine See Joh. 14.21 and Gen. 22.16 17.
have any thing else any creature that flatters them and sayes unto them as the Bramble said to the Trees of the Forrest in Iothams Parable Judg. 9.15 Come and put your trust under my shadow place your confidence in me Men will hardly be intreated to cast away such a confidence upon any termes If a great estate or some great friend that is eminent in place and power should but allure us and speake as kindly and gratiously unto us as the great God of heaven and earth doth from place to place in his Word cast all your care and your burden upon us we will take care for you Men would take hold of such words as soone as they should be spoken and would doe that which was desired of them with all their hearts and would hardly aske any question about it either for conscience sake or for feares sake But now God inviting us to doe him that honour and our selves that ease as to cast all our care on him i. e. to doe it in a carelesse secure and resolute manner as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth assuring us that hee doth care for us which no creature doth in comparison of him men will thinke of it ten times before they will doe it once 1 Pet. 5.7 Even they which doe any thing in this kinde they will not cast their care upon him all they will be brought to doe is to lay it on him faire and softly as we use to lay burdens of any weight upon Tables or Stooles when we suspect the joynts to be crazy and shaken we lay them downe as gently and easily as may be for feare we should breake all in pieces and our burdens fall to the ground and as men use to walke upon Ice over deep Waters they doe not at first leap and jump upon it but first set one foote and then another to see whether the Ice crack or no whether it will beare them that so they may retire back againe to the ground without danger before they be on too far but to goe thus to worke with God is not to cast our care upon him but rather to tempt him and see whether he wil beare it or no. Wheras he gives us in that an assurance before hand yea gives it as the reason or ground upon which he requires us to cast all our care upon him in such a manner Cast all your care on him for he careth for you I would never wish you to doe it to cast it upon God but that I know he doth take care for you and will discharge that trust alone as much for your comfort and satisfaction as if you should be over-busie your selves and would needs joyne your selves in Commission with him Therefore now if thou hast interest in God and hast any burthens one or more to beare or carry if thou wilt carry this burden thy selfe and toile and turmoile thy selfe till thou beest ready to faint and sinke and die under it and not cast it upon God now walkest thou laden to the prejudice and scandall of heaven thy burthen would be honourable upon the shoulder of the Almighty both to him and thee We account it a meane calling among men and servile to carry burdens but it is exceeding glorious in God to beare all the burdens of his Saints that they may walke upright and not have their backs bowed downe to the earth This point of the Reproofe likewise as the former did concerneth us not only as we are private men but as we are together a Church and People of God If our interest in him be such as hath been declared as doubtlesse it is if we be the People of God why do we cause this great blessednesse of ours to be blasphemed and evill spoken of in the world by seeking to lay other foundations of our peace and comfort besides the favour and power of God alone why doe we not stand sure upon him though we have nothing else to establish us why are we not built upon him what addition can be made unto him if we had all the flesh in the world made up into an arme of salvation unto us could it adde any thing to our security Dan. 6.20 Is not thy God saith Darius to Daniel in the Lions Den whom thou servest alway able to deliver thee from the Lion Either he is able to deliver us and save us out of the mouthes of all Lions able to rebuke all our destroyers or he is not able if he be not able then I aske who made heaven and earth doubtlesse it will not aske a greater power to save us then it did to create us and the whole frame of heaven and earth besides Ps 124.8 And therefore David in the name of the Church of God fats and flesheth as it were his trust and confidence with that consideration Our help standeth in the name of the Lord that made heaven and earth as if he meant never to trouble himselfe further as long as he saw heaven and earth standing before him to enquire out more names of helpers and defenders to joyne with him that made heaven and earth Our help stands in the name of the Lord c. Here it is permanent and fixed it did not remove up and downe and shift from one name to another as if now they were confident in God another while confident in some creature or outward support they did not remove from bottome to bottome as men that are double minded doe they have no standing help or comfort any where but still are shifting and flitting from under the shadow of one tree to another from under the wing of one creature to another If he be able to deliver us and we be his People and have interest in all the glory of his power why do we suffer any thought to enter into us of standing upon any other ground why are we troubled and distracted in our selves about seeking and providing a hiding place from storms and tempests when we remaine under the shadow of his wing If any enemy have power to pluck any of his feathers then had we some cause to feare a lying open to the weather And what shall we say in this point to our Romane Catholiques for the name of Catholiques they must have to themselves and all the world must give out their right to them but for the truth and substance of it that they leave to divide who will amongst them But let it be here againe considered what interest it is like that they have in God or whether their wayes in the point we speake of be like the wayes of men Whose God is the Lord. Doe they make their dependance intire upon God doe they trust in him alone for the bearing up of the Pillars of their Church doe they commit their cause unto him attempting nothing but that which is lawfull and right for the advancing thēselves their Church and Religion are they content to fall
offend them yet on the sudden remembring it selfe as it were it tooke fire and destroyed them So that me thinkes this fiery Element of Powder spake to and dealt betweene them these Popish miscreants and us the Church of God amongst us much after the same manner as the evill spirit mentioned Acts 19.15 both spake and dealt by those Vagabond Jewes those Exorcists in respect of Iesus and Paul When these Exorcists adjured this evill spirit by Jesus whom Paul preached the spirit answered and said to them Iesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye And the man saith the Text in whom the evill spirit was ran on them and they fled out of the house naked and wounded So when these Popish Exorcists had adjured and charged the Powder to doe execution upon this Kingdome and State professing the truth and Gospell of Jesus Christ the Powder made them answer The State and Church of England I know the servants of the living God I know those that worship the Lord Christ in Spirit and truth I know I have nothing to doe with these I can doe nothing against them but who are you you cursed enemies of truth Church of God I owe you no such service Therefore looke to your selves and keep out of the dint of my fiery Whirlewinde Otherwise your flesh will be before me but as stubble before the winde I will devoure you But this for the second motive to perswade enemies to desist it is a worke that never hath and therefore certainly never will prosper but only to destruction of the workers themselves A third motive followes Let this consideration also prevaile with the enemies of the Church to cause them to cease from the violence that is in their hand against it because this Church of God and the members of it whom they persecute living amongst them in the world are the rock as it were upon which their City is built they are the foundations of all the peace and all the pleasure and all the contentments they enjoy upon earth these are the partition wall between them and hell for the time These are the Chariots and Horsemen for defence and faseguard of their States and Lives against the fury and indignation of the Lord which otherwise would breake in upon them and consume them in a moment The great Master housholder of this great house the world would soon break up house if his owne Children were once disposed of in marriage to their great husband If these were once setled in their inheritance the wicked would soone with Iudas be packed away and sent every man to his owne place When God shall once speake come yee blessed depart ye cursed followes presently sently after it The Chaffe is not in danger of burning as long as it lies in the same heap intermixt with the Wheat but if the Wheat be once divided by it self from it then it is neare the burning with unquenchable fire It is true that which our Saviour saith Mat. 5.45 God makes his Sun to arise upon the evill and the good but with this interpretation and in this order as one glosseth the place well he makes the Sun to arise upon the evill and the good but upon the evill for the goods sake And that manner of speaking I take it is much to be noted where it is said that God maketh his Sun to rise upon evill and good q. d. If God himselfe did not mediate and interpose with a strong hand betweene that glorious creature of his the Sun and evill and wicked men they would never agree for an houre together the Sun being once set would never rise upon such men again There is a naturall unwillingnesse and gainsaying in the whole Creation in the Heavens Sun Moone and Stars to doe any service to or to gratifie wicked men that are enemies to God though otherwise it be most agreeable to their particular natures to give forth their light and influences to the world and they may seem to rejoyce as it were and triumph to doe it yet since man rebelled against God that created him through that naturall sympathy they have with God and his glory there is an utter aversnesse and unwillingnesse upon them even to doe that office and service to the world for which they were created and are able freely to afford without any offence hinderance or prejudice to themselves otherwise But that which is their glory their excellent light and lustre and those heavenly influences they give downe upon the world in this respect is not their glory but a griefe and burden upon them to pleasure the enemies of God with them and to strengthen their hand as if through a zeale they have to Gods glory they would rather lose their beeing though excellent and glorious then to remain and continue doing service to his enemies So that did not God over-rule them in the thing by a strong hand the Sun would presently clothe himselfe with a sackcloth the Moone would give over shining and the Stars would fall out of their place in heaven rather then shine here to pleasure the enemies of their God This I rather take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 8.20 Because the creature is subject to vanity not of its owne will but by reason of him that hath subdued it under hope That vanity whereunto the creature is said to be here subject is not to be understood of a vanity of corruption properly so called or dissolution for it is a great question whether it be at all subject to this vanity or no whether in the heavens which are the principall parts of the creature there shall be any such change that shall answer the death and dissolution of man It is hard to conceive how the heavens should be invested with a condition more glorious and excellent then that wherein they now stand which seemes necessary to be held and to bee beleeved if we hold any such change comming upon them answerable to death What God is able to doe in this case we do not here dispute or deny And againe secondly if it were this kinde of vanity the holy Ghost should here meane I suppose the Apostle would never have mentioned that circumstance as a matter so weighty and worthy of consideration that it should be contrary to the will of it For who knowes not that corruption and destruction is contrary to the naturall desire and inclination of any thing whatsoever therfore those words would taste too flat and dry for the wisdome of the holy Ghost if such a sense were admitted Thirdly and lastly the vanity here meant must be such a vanity from the subjection whereof the creature desireth even for the present and that with fervency to be free and to be delivered ver 19. Now from the vanity of corruption properly so called it cannot be delivered but by undergoing and suffering corruption first and so it would follow that the fervent desire of the creature should
be unto dissolution corruption though not as the end yet as the meanes whereas wee know corruption in that sense whether considered as end or meanes is contrary to the desire much more the fervent desire of every creature Therefore the vanity whereunto the creature is here said to be subject and to be subdued unto viz. by the over-ruling hand and power of God seems rather to be meant of a vanity in their service and labour implying that they doe otherwise then they have a minde to doe or then stands with their owne inclination and so it is to be taken rather for a vanity of sorrow then of mutability which is called a bondage of corruption ver 21. either because to be thus subdued and held to it by God to serve his enemies it is to the creature as unpleasant and bitter as a bondage unto corruption or because such a subjection doth staine and corrupt the glory of the creature Notwithstanding it is the pleasure of God so to have it for a season and in respect of that hope God hath given it that it shall shortly be delivered the creature is well content with it it is no vanity to it in either of these respects Now if question be made Wherefore doth God subdue the creature to vanity in this sense and compells it to serve and comfort wicked and sinfull men One maine reason is this It is because God hath yet many of his Children upon the way of their Pilgrimage in the world amongst them and he hath more to succeed them for a while But if these were once all through the Wildernesse of this world and entered into their glorious rest God would deliver the creature from the bondage mentioned it shall no more minister to the children of disobedience but shall be restored into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God it shall be as free from serving sinfull men as these in the state of the Resurrection shall be free from obeying any sinfull corruption Therefore those that seek to take away the lives of the Saints of God they make the foundations of the round world to reele totter and stagger and attempt to shake the pillars of heaven and earth They doe as if a man should undermine and dig down the foundations of the house he dwells in to cause it to fall on his head and those that were with him We see whilest Lot was in Sodome Gen. 9.22 Sodome was in Lot i. e. the safety and peace of Sodome was in Lot I can doe nothing saith the Angell to him meaning towards the destruction of the City till thou beest gone out of it and hast taken Sanctuary Now suppose the men of the City had persecuted Lot and thrust him out of their City before this as words brake out that way they were talking of such a matter ver 9. had not the storme and tempest of the fiery indignation of the Lord come swifter upon them then it did Except those daies were shortned saith our Saviour of the troubles of Jerusalem no flesh could be saved but for the Elects sake these daies shall be shortened Mat. 24.22 On the contrary concerning the mercies and good things wicked men enjoy in this world except these dayes were lengthened and prolonged there could none of these mercies be enjoyed but for the elect and righteous mens sakes these dayes are lengthened unto them And therefore the Prophet Esay makes a solemne and sad observation upon it that righteous men should perish and so few consider it and lay it to heart Esay 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart c. as if it were a thing of neare concernment and to be taken much to heart when a righteous member is cut off from the body of any State or Society of men and yet of the two it is a thing much more to be laid to heart that such a righteous man should be thrust our by men themselves from amongst them or lose his life by their hand then if God should take him away by death It is true in both cases it is likely he is taken away from the evill to come but in the former when men destroy the righteous from amongst them the evil to come is like to come both more suddenly more heavily upon those that are left Therefore they that persecute the Saints of God they call for fire as it were downe from heaven upon their owne heads they put a sword into the Lords hand wherewith to slay them If that Scarlet Whore of Rome had been or ever should be able to performe the devise she imagined and yet imagines daily to roote out all the holy Seed the whole family that is descended of Jesus Christ in all the world so that she had left none but her owne adulterous generation to possesse the earth she might then thinke indeed that she sate like a Queen but the truth is she should have prevented her judgment and torments so much the sooner Shee had but brought the feare and dread of the devill which was To be tormented before his time so much the more speedily upon his owne head Suppose the Lord had given us up into their bloody hands which yet we and our posterity shall have cause to blesse him so long as the Sunne and Moone indures that it was far from all his thoughts to doe but put case I say that she had been let alone with State People Gospell Religion that she might have done with all these as it is said the Jewes did by Iohn the Baptist Mat. 17.12 even what she list that she had triumphed in that fatall blow for ought that she knew or was aware of she might have shaken the foundations of her owne Mountaines and have caused her Sun to have set over her head even at noone dayes she might have thundered even the Lord Jesus Christ out of heaven to have taken speedy vengeance upon those that would bring up hell from beneath upon the face of the earth and that had destroyed out of the world the beauty and glory of it Fourthly and lastly this consideration also may prevaile with the enemies of the Church and People of God to cause them to desist from persecuting the Saints from attempting and plotting evill against them because they cannot lift up a hand against these but in a way of unrighteousnesse wrong They are called in Scripture The generation of the righteous and their waies are just and holy and good therefore whoever shall touch any of these to doe them any harme to afflict or bring evill upon them cannot be innocent but injustice and violence will be found in his hands Many of those that are the sourest enemies of the Church and that beare a tyrannicall and inveterate hatred against the Saints are men that for Morall honesty and Justice stand upon termes of honour and reputation and thinke it their great glory that they wash their hands in